Desertification

Colorado's San Luis Valley
is a land of broad, expansive range ringed by massive mountains
that is visited only rarely by rain, about eight inches a year.
It is also a place where a small enclave of ranchers struggle to
make a living, fighting not only the elements but a host of
forces--politics, the pressures of modern culture and
technology, the marketplace--that conspire to put an end to
their generations-old community. For a year beginning in 1992,
naturalist and magazine writer Sam Bingham lived in the valley.
In The Last Ranch he brings to life both the people of
the valley and a flock of international characters who have
targeted the San Luis Valley for exploitation. At the center of
the story are Donnie and Karen Whitten, high school sweethearts
who live in a doublewide trailer with their three children, and
who come to symbolize the tenacity of the residents of the
valley as they endure against very long odds.

Desertification in the World

According to the United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification, Desertification has been defined as LAND DEGRADATION IN ARID,
SEMI-ARID AND DRY SUB-HUMID AREAS RESULTING FROM VARIOUS FACTORS, INCLUDING CLIMATIC
VARIATIONS AND HUMAN ACTIVITIES.

This concept was negotiated during the Rio Earth
Summit and is, today, internationally accepted. It may be understood at two levels:

1) With respect to climatic variations, drought is a typical phenomenon of the arid
regions ;

2) With respect to the actions of land degradation that are induced by man, they should be
understood as having at least five components, as proposed by FAO :

a) Degradation of animal population and vegetation (biotic degradation or loss of
biodiversity) in large areas of the semi-arid region due to hunting and timber extraction;

b) Soil degradation, that may occur as a result of a physical effect (water or wind
erosion and compactation caused by use of heavy mechanization) or by chemical effects
(salinization or sodification);

c) Degradation of the surface hydrologic conditions as a result of loss of vegetation
cover;

d) Degradation of the geohydrological conditions (underground waters) resulting from
changes in the recharge conditions;

e) Degradation of economic infrastructure and quality of life of human settlements.

This definition was adopted by UNEP, and based on it, the areas susceptible to
desertification were defined. As may be clearly seen, the susceptible areas are
those subjected to arid climates (arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid).

In the areas susceptible to Desertification and Drought, live some 900 million people,
and of these around 200 million are already affected by this process, according to data
from the "Status of Desertification and Implementation of the U.N. Plan of Action to
Combat Desertification" report elaborated by UNEP.